What in the hell is a pound?

No, really.

Now that we’d begun to finally reap the fruits of our labors over the past month and actually create a deliverable product, we stumbled upon an issue that had been so far below my notice that I hadn’t even considered it.

Cheshire had bargained for us to make a third of a pound of tea leaves for him each month. At this point, I was fairly confident that we could actually meet that quota, but we had no method of actually measuring it. Deconstructing the tea leaves with my manamites simply resulted in a pitifully small amount of plant fiber from whatever portions of the leaves it could salvage, and the rest seemingly vanished into thin air, incompatible with my virtual hoard.

Not that the virtual hoard would have been any help anyways, as the measure of storage for materials within it lacked any kind of unit for me to base a guess off of.

If I knew the exact density of any of my materials, I might have been able to create a ‘standard’ item to use when measuring pounds, but my abilities as a core didn’t include internet access or an encyclopedia. Though really, even knowing the density wouldn’t help without a way to measure volume or exact dimensions.

Without a way to accurately measure weight, all I could do was produce as much as I could and see if Cheshire knew a way to properly sort out an amount. After all, he knew what a pound was, so it was likely another carryover from Earth that the previous visitors had introduced. That camp that we’d visited previously might have even been a good place to check, as they likely had a scale within their trading post.

That was just a guess though—for all I knew they simply measured things with magic, though I couldn’t find any skills that mentioned it directly.

Our stockpile of leaves has been growing nicely at least. Every day, I harvest the leaves that look ready to go and Ephi takes care of preparing them and carting them over to the boiler room to dry in the heat within.

Yes, ‘cart’—I made a few small adjustments to her armor and created a small wooden chariot of sorts that she can lug around the base as needed. It helps with transporting small things quite a bit and helped cut down on the amount of back-and-forth needed to moving goods to our larder.

The food supply within has dwindled slightly already—having two mouths to feed is rough on our reserves, especially when both of those mouths have the added calorie requirements of [Forged Sapience]. I guessed that we had about three weeks of food left at the pace we were going, most of it in the form of assorted berries, nuts, and tubers.

Spoilage hadn’t taken anything from us yet, but I knew it would end up being a concern sooner or later.

As such, I gave Libra one of her first proper assignments as an employee: fishing.

Not quite in the traditional sense, though.

The river that supplied our water continued to flow even despite the steadily-dropping temperatures outside, and the minnow trap I’d initially set within had proven to be a modest success. Most days we could expect to catch at least one or two tiny fish within, but nothing particularly large inhabited these icy waters. Rather than taking care of them myself, I had Libra take the honor of ending them and hauling them back home.

It didn’t make sense to just let the experience go to waste, after all.

Once she brought them back, we gutted them and removed their scales before letting them smoke in the boiler room too. They’d last longer this way and considering that both of them were omnivores this would help keep our stocks up.

So far, we were looking good.

And after four days, we had about a half-Ephilia of tea leaves prepared and good to go. Making an old fashioned balancing scale was the easy part, but without a standard I could only measure against whatever loose objects I put on it.

We also hadn’t really decided on how we’d do the exchange, such as if I could expect Cheshire to come pick it up or if I was to just bring it over to his shrine. Doing delivery seemed like something that might be expected of me under normal circumstances, though the fact that Cheshire could just teleport here made it a bit less certain.

Our first delivery would be today, I decided.

We’d bring over what we had prepared so far and see what guidance our client could give on weights and measurements, then do a second trip if needed to finish up the balance. To accomplish this, I bundled the leaves that we had up into a pair of cloth-wrapped packages, connecting them together via a rope. This was then slung over Libra’s back for her to carry, as I felt that it was just a bit much for Ephi to carry all on her own.

I sent the two of them out together, with Ephi leading the way and scouting for any potential dangers while Libra lagged behind slightly, taking care not to damage the parcels at all along the way. It was about midday when they left—I’d aimed for the warmest parts of the day to make things easier on them.

Ephi’s mobility was several steps above the fox’s, leaving her frequently having to pause to allow Libra to catch up and stay within vision of one another. I still didn’t have [Core Link II] for her, after all—I couldn’t just look through her eyes, so Ephilia was playing double duty at keeping a watchful gaze out for any trouble.

“She’s very slow,” Ephi complained, perched atop a snapped branch fallen from a snow-covered tree, “Can you tell her to move faster? I don’t want to be out past dark and there’s no telling how long things will take with Cheshire.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, given that I’d been watching her glance nervously over her shoulder for the majority of the trip as if convinced the fox would be right behind her at any moment. “She’s just sightseeing. Probably daydreaming or something, if I had to guess. I’ll give her a nudge though, one moment.”

Flipping over to the link between myself and the fox, I relayed the message in more polite terms. “You’re a bit under halfway to the shrine. I might have to ask you to pick up the pace a bit—don’t worry about straining yourself too much, you’ll have time to rest for a bit once you’re there while Ephi and I handle the negotiations. We try to avoid staying out past dark for safety reasons.”

Libra nodded. “Understood. I’ll try. I was just distracted; I recognize this area. The mouse is far quicker on her feet than I am, too…”

“She’s got a few movement skills, yeah. I’m not all that shocked. Just try to stick together within eyeshot of one another—don’t worry about matching her speed or the exact path she takes.”

Another nod was her response to me—I only barely caught it in the corner of Ephilia’s eyesight.

“And on that note, try not to rely on body language as much when we’re talking over link. I can’t see it all the time when you’re not inside the dungeon.”

Her tail went rigid for a moment as this realization dawned on her. “Right, of course.”

There was little of interest that happened along the trip, thankfully—no signs of the other core’s presence in the area, and no natural predators skulking about, though we did spot a deer. It didn’t really pay us much mind and, after a few moments of staring at Ephi, returned to scrounging for food.

Eventually, the two entered a clearing that looked far different than the one we’d stumbled upon all that time ago. Ephi didn’t seem all too concerned about it, sauntering in like she owned the place, while Libra was far more hesitant at the unnatural aura of the shrine’s grounds. The entire area was covered in a thin powder of snow, far less than the rest of the forest, with the area directly surrounding the central structure being entirely clear of it.

“Go on, you’re safe here,” I urged Libra, who gingerly slunk forward across the open area as if even just setting foot in here was a crime, “This is where we’re dropping off. Now we just have to find him.”

Last time we’d ventured into this place, Cheshire had simply materialized out of thin air.

We waited, with Ephi and Libra begrudgingly sharing the area around the shrine itself for the unnatural warmth surrounding it.

The sun slowly trailed across the sky, and we waited. He didn’t show up, though. After just a few minutes, Ephi grew impatient and began to explore the altar further, doing a few laps around its exterior like a shark circling a sinking life raft, searching for a weakness.

“Cheshire,” Ephi called out over our link, “Cheshire, Cheshire, Cheshire—”

And he promptly stepped out from the side of the edifice that we weren’t actively monitoring, an unamused look on his face.

“I can assure you that there’s no need to yell,” he chided, glancing down from one employee to the other, “Another one? And… ah, I’m sensing a pattern. Apologies for the delay, I was sorting out some other business.”

Ephi’s nose twitched for a moment, her eyes trying to track down a familiar smell, eventually locking right on to the knuckles of his right hand.

Bloodied.

He quickly righted this, pulling a pristine cloth from one of his pockets and cleaning himself off as best as he could before folding this rag up and tucking it back in.

“If I can take a guess: goblin business?”

His eyebrows raised almost imperceptibly, his eyes narrowing before he caught himself, taking on a more bemused expression. “And what lead you to this presumption?”

“The S.S. Dead-Goblin recently made landfall in our port, if you catch my drift,” I replied, clarifying, “Seems like they’ve been a problem in this area. Unless you’re out there killing adventurers, I don’t see what else it might be—it wasn’t yours, considering you’re not missing any HP.”

He took on a pondering look for a moment. “Ah, I believe I understand. Perhaps I’ve been a bit sloppy with cleaning up the remains, yes. They’re quite the nuisance—though hardly a pressing concern. I see that you’re not here empty-handed: is that what I think it is?”

“It might be. We’re actually here to see if you can help us check.”

I gave the canine man a brief explanation of our troubles, earning more than a few snickers from him along the way.

“I take full responsibility for this miscommunication—I should have caught such an obvious hole in our agreement right from the very beginning. So, a standard by which to measure, let’s see…”

His hand slipped into his pocket.

And then slipped further.

My confusion must have slipped over our link, because I felt a similar response from Ephi right up until she noticed what had caught me as his arm just went a bit too deep into his pocket for what was natural.

Spatial magic? That or enchanted pockets, maybe?

Curious, I examined his outfit to see if I could divine some information.

🞚 Moonseared Heavensilk Suit 🞚

Category: Equipment A garment that crosses the boundaries between battle dress and formal attire, impeccably woven from the finest materials. Grants a significant bonus to vitality and dexterity, and provides a substantial boost to physical and magical defenses. Immune to degradation.

No infinite pockets, just daunting stats that made what I could make look like amateur hour. I wasn’t really offended by this given that I’d only just begun to learn it myself.

When his hand came out of this pocket dimension, a tarnished brass cube was clutched between his fingers. He placed it gently down onto the floor in front of the duo of animals, adding, “You may use this as a rough measurement from now on—as long as you’re providing an amount equal to this in weight, I will consider the bargain fulfilled. And, on that note…”

He flashed a coin, placing it on top of the weight.

“A single pewter coin, per our arrangement with your ‘capital investment’ removed. Now, I believe that settles the ‘business’ side of things. I see that you’ve discovered how to use your starfont in a way you deem safe. You’ve even recruited another follower. What will you do now?”

“Lay low and work on growing the business, I think. I’d like to find a way to sell to the humans so that’s my main goal—I’ve been working on an idea for a vending machine and I think I’m going to give it a shot once I figure out a way to brew up some tea of my own to sell. Maybe some potions or prepackaged rations, too—things that can be produced and transported easily by my crew.”

“Ah, potions,” he snickered, collecting the parcels of tea and placing them up onto his shrine, “If you develop a talent for that, there’s money to be made, certainly. It’s a limited market though; potent potions sell to rich adventurers, and the only rich adventurers are capable adventurers. Basic tonics ought to sell fine, but if you try to sell anything too advanced you’ll attract the wrong kind of attention. Tea, though? Perhaps you could sell it.”

“Though you should know, the delvers in this area aren’t quite as sophisticated as some of the more cosmopolitan ones. They lack the funds to splurge unnecessarily and generally live day-to-day. One night they might be a soldier, but when there’s no fighting to be seen they’ll lay bricks or shovel manure, whatever they have to do to get a hot meal for the day,” he added.

“I was just going to sell for one pewter,” I remarked, raising an eyebrow, “I can’t really go any lower than that.”

Cheshire raised an eyebrow.

“Of course you can. The pewters that I’ve paid you with so far are of Ellomerian origin, as are most of the nicer-looking coins of this realm. Boltha, the city these delvers originate from, uses the Ellomerian standard for most transactions of value; they lack the sophisticated methods required to make such long-lasting and hard-to-forge coin. However, the Bolthan pence…”

The wolfman pulled out an uneven-looking coin of a blueish metal, with the sigil of an owl visible on one side of it.

“A tin piece used for day-to-day transactions in Boltha. Five of these is equivalent to a single pewter in value, as mandated by their trade council. You can consider a single pence to be valued as ‘a loaf of bread of approximately a single pound in weight, with nothing used to cut or replace its primary grain as the ingredient’,” he explained, shaking his head at the last bit, “The Bolthans fancy themselves as the trade kingdom of the realm. I can assure you that they are not.”

“If Ellomere’s currency is so in demand, why don’t I ever see anyone taking the old street to the north? I’ve had eyes on the road for weeks now and I haven’t seen a single traveler any further north than the camp they set up.”

“…I believe you could figure that one out on your own. It’s just down the road, after all,” Cheshire replied, refusing to give an ounce of information, “One last thing—this machine that you speak of. Tell me about it.”

Ephi and Libra were both looking a bit antsy after this conversation, with Ephi at least hearing some of it to keep herself busy. For Libra, it was simply silent, with this mysterious stranger staring at her coworker silently and occasionally emoting.

I did my best to keep my explanation brief, for their sakes.

“It’s pretty simple. You put a coin in, select what you want, and the machine spits it out for you. Occasionally it’ll need to be restocked, but other than that it’s almost entirely maintenance-free for us. Since we can’t talk to anyone and I doubt they’d trust a giant rat coming in and trying to sell them bottled drinks, it’s our best option.”

“I touched upon it vaguely a long time ago, but primal ascension may also suit your needs. Though it’s not without its drawbacks—once done, it will forever alter the monster you use it on and not just for the better. Most of your ascensions are generally positive, yes?”

“Yeah. That’s the whole reason it’s worth doing,” I remarked.

“Then, think of primal ascension differently. It’s a stopping point meant to differentiate a monster that a dungeon is serious about investing into from the chaff. Perhaps it’s simplest to explain how it went for me. You can see which one my master chose—I look mostly human, yes? Almost indifferentiable from the demihumans that exist on the fringes of human society.”

Well, I had been wondering about that. “Yeah. And you were just a wolf beforehand.”

“Precisely. But it was not the only option, and it was not without cost. My senses were dulled significantly, for instance, and I lost a great deal of the physical might that my body possessed. In exchange, I received the adaptability that comes with humanity. There were other choices, though—elemental infusion, for instance—but they will all have a single common thread: give and take."

“Yeah. I get it. If I have an employee that looks more humanlike, we might actually stand a chance at trading,” I affirmed, “Anyways, these two need to be home before sundown so unless you’re feeling generous enough to teleport them back, we really have to get going.”

“Very well then—have a safe journey, and I look forward to seeing you again next month.”

We loaded up shortly afterward and went back home with our new goods.

The extra coin was nice in that it brought me back above my previous high point for mana regeneration, and I left the brass cube in our stockpile for now to use for measuring our tea.

We were in an all-around decent position now, with even further mana regeneration and a steadily-increasing quality of life for my employees. Our side crops were doing well and would near maturity soon, which would provide a small amount of additional resources in the form of linen and food. They’d just need a bit of a push in the form of additional ascension to be ready to sow entire fields, so that was just what I did—I had several days worth of mana to spend, after all.

The javelin root—the off-brand carrots that I’d planted—were a big focus of mine, as I reasoned that I’d be able to turn them into a staple food source for the base. Two ascensions got it into far better shape, and I followed suit with the flax knockoff.

CORE-TOUCHED JAVELIN ROOT LVL: 0 NAME: undefined

Traits:

[Disease Resilience]

[Optimized Growth]

[Enhanced Photosynthesis]

Skills:

HP: 6 / 6 CATEGORY: Plant

Employee MP: 0 / 0 SPECIES: Root SP: 0 / 0 SIZE: Small XP: 0% GENDER: --- STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 0 3 0 0 0 0

A dark-purple root vegetable shaped similarly to the head of a spear. Carries a number of vital nutrients, though these require cooking to get the most of. Fully Mature. Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Cost: 30 MP CORE-TOUCHED SEAMSTRESS'S FLOWER LVL: 0 NAME: undefined

Traits:

[Silverthread Fibers]

[Optimized Growth]

[Climate Acclimation]

Skills:

HP: 6 / 6 CATEGORY: Plant

Employee MP: 0 / 0 SPECIES: Flower SP: 0 / 0 SIZE: Small XP: 0% GENDER: --- STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 0 3 0 0 0 0

A blue-flowered plant commonly farmed for its luxurious fibers, which can be spun into durable fabric. In some areas, its seeds are crushed into oil and added to meals. Fully Mature. Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Cost: 30 MP

With this, [Horticulture I] allowed me to take their seeds and plant them across the empty plots of the greenhouse—an investment into our future, and one that I hoped would help intercept two of our biggest risks: the cold and the fact that most of the foliage couldn’t be foraged now.

Still, something stuck in my head. What were the cities like?

I’d heard of Boltha and Ellomere now, but I’d seen nothing of either one save for the occasional adventurer. What would a city on another world look like? Not that I really wanted to send one of my employees on a wild goose chase just to satisfy my own curiosity or anything.

Maybe someday we'd check them out, but for now we had concerns far closer to home.

For example, the 'kitchen' that I was starting to plan out. I still needed to decide on an area for it, but I wanted to create a way to automate most of the process of making tea. To do that, what I was planning to create was far more of a laboratory than a kitchen, though.

CURRENT PROGRESS:

BOSS

FRAGMENT OF COALESCED WILL LVL: 3 NAME: "Boss"

Traits:

Skills:

[Horticulture I]

[Biology I]

[Creator's Insight]

[Mech. Engineering I]

[Textiles I]

[Transmutation I]

[Mining I]

[Core Metalworking]

Features:

[Manamite Creation]

[Self-Synthesis]

[Manamite Specialization I]

[Material Infusion]

HP: 18 / 18 CATEGORY: Elemental MP: 41 / 100 SPECIES: Dungeon Core MP Rate: +27 daily SIZE: Tiny WEALTH: 6 XP: 86% STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 0 6 0 9 8 8

Nascent heart of a world-born entity, crystallized from soul energy. Exerts control over a localized area.

Manamite Horde (149 / 180):

139 Manamites

1 Managermites (-3 MP/d)

Boiler Squad (5 / 20):

5 Manamites

Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Level: 5

Wealth: 25

Employees: 3

Cost: 100 MP

Facility: Prison Virtual Hoard:

[COMMON MATERIALS]

➤615.4 Raw Stone

➤418.0 Loose Soil

➤65.1 Biological Material

➤326.1 Raw Lumber

➤24.3 Plant Fiber

➤0.2 Raw Crystal

➤12.4 Iron Ore

➤35.9 Copper Ore

[RARE MATERIALS]

➤6.1 Moonstone

➤0.5 Shimmerwood

➤4 Stellarite

➤2.2 Orichalcum

EPHILIA

CORE-TOUCHED DIRE MOUSE (RUNT) LVL: 4 NAME: "Ephilia"

Traits:

[Forged Sapience]

[Gigantism]

Skills:

[Scavenge]

[Festering Bite]

[Core Link II]

[Core Bond I]

[Enhanced Vitality I]

[Enhanced Strength I]

[Athletics I]

[Self-Catalyzation]

[Life Magic I]

Spells:

[Rapid Bloom I]

Equipped:

🞚 Moonlit Mouseknight Barding

HP: 12 / 12 CATEGORY: Employee MP: 0 / 0 SPECIES: Field Mouse SP: 5 / 5 SIZE: Small XP: 90% GENDER: ♀ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 5 (+1) 6 (+1) 5 5 3 7

A field rodent of unusual size under the auric influence of a dungeon core. Possesses enhanced mental acuity and judgement. Force Level-Up Cost: 30 MP Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

PRIMAL ASCENSION

Cost: 100 MP

'FOX'

CORE-TOUCHED FOX KIT LVL: 3 NAME: "Libra"

Traits:

[Forged Sapience]

[Mana Processing]

Skills:

[Core Link I]

[Core Bond I]

[Stealth I]

[Evasion I]

[Self-Catalyzation]

[Light Magic I]

Equipped:

🞚 Moonlit Silver Opal Ring-Amulet

HP: 9 / 9 CATEGORY: Employee MP: 2 / 2 SPECIES: Fox SP: 5 / 5 SIZE: Small XP: 29% GENDER: ♀ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 3 3 5 6 (+1) 4 7

A common red fox imbued with the auric touch of a dungeon core. A cunning and playful beast that's known for causing mischief. Force Level-Up Cost: 30 MP Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

PRIMAL ASCENSION

Cost: 100 MP